The train collision in India’s eastern Odisha state on Friday evening – the country’s worst this century – involved two passenger trains and a freight train.
At least 288 people were killed and 1,000 injured.
The BBC spoke to villagers who witnessed the crash, and an injured passenger.
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Suryaveer
My mother and my grandmother were on the train. They were going to the city to buy medicines.
I found my granny a few hours after the accident. She was alive. But my mother was missing. We looked for her everywhere but couldn’t find her.
I didn’t know what to do, so I forwarded a photo of my mother to all my friends and acquaintances. I shared her number as well and described the colour of the dress she was wearing when I last saw her.
This morning I heard from one of my friends. They sent me a picture of a body – it was my mother. She was wearing the same dress.
All I want now is to be able to take her body back home safely so that we can put her to rest. But there is so much chaos here – there are no trains and the roads are all jammed.
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Girija Shankar Rath
There was chaos. There was a loud sound and there was smoke all around.
People were running in all directions. I was close to the tracks and decided to run to the spot. We started pulling out some of the trapped passengers. We managed to get some of the survivors out – and some bodies, too.
There were so many injured, we did not know how to get them out. It became a bit easier after the rescue workers arrived. This work went on almost throughout the night. I am still in a daze.
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Tutu Biswas
We heard a loud sound. When we came out of the house, we saw that this accident had happened outside. I saw the goods train had climbed over on another train.
When I reached the spot, I saw that many people were injured, many people had died. A small child was crying whose parents had probably died. That child also died after a while.
Many people were asking for water here. I gave water to people as much as possible. People from our village came here and helped people as much as they could.
It was horrific.
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Mukesh Pandit
I was in the train when we felt a slight jolt and the train derailed.
There was a thunderous sound and the train overturned. I was trapped and was rescued after half an hour by local people.
All our belongings were scattered outside. I couldn’t find any of it. I came out and sat on the ground. Four passengers who were travelling from my village have survived, but a lot of people are injured or still missing.
A lot of people died in the coach I was travelling in. Those who were seriously injured were brought to the hospital.
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Ritik Kumar
My brother was sitting on his berth and I was standing next to the door of the coach.
When the train overturned, I managed to escape. I thought my brother would’ve escaped too, but that did not happen. He got stuck under his seat.
I ran back to the wreckage and pulled him out – I pulled out a young girl who was stuck with him as well.
I called the police and the ambulance services but they took half-an-hour to get there.
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India’s deadly train crashes
- June 1981: Nearly 800 people die when seven of the nine coaches of an overcrowded train fall into a river during a cyclone
- August 1995: At least 350 people are killed when two trains collide 200km (125 miles) from Delhi
- August 1999: Two trains collide near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) killing at least 285 people
- October 2005: 77 people are killed when a train derails in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh
- November 2016: Nearly 150 people are killed and an equal number are injured when 14 carriages of the Indore-Patna Express train derail near the city of Kanpur
Source : BBC